Jean-Michel Basquiat's incendiary career and rise to fame during the 1980s was unprecedented in the world of art. The former graffiti sprayer whose art is inextricable from the backdrop of New York City streets penetrated the global art scene with unparalleled quickness. His paintings are often compared to primitive tribal drawings and to kindergarden scribbles, but these comparisons are meant to underscore the work's raw innocence and tone of authenticity aking to the primitivism of Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso or even that of the infant mind. His paintings depict the physical and the abstract to express themes as varied as drug abuse, bigotry, jazz, capitalism and mortality.